Claremont School Board, February 15, 2023

Participants

Names follow the agenda masthead and the minutes. Where the dialogue file renders or attributes a name differently, the row says so. Bonnie Miles is identified on the recording only by elimination and one direct reference.
Name	Role	Participation
Michael Petrin	Chair	Presides; frames the only decision as the default budget (1:08:48); restates the motion with its dollar effect (1:39:11); calls the roll-call re-vote after an unclear voice vote (1:40:16); votes Yes. Announces his own candidacy for the one-year seat (1:42:22). Rendered Patron by the transcript.
Heather Whitney	Vice chair	Seconds the 2/1 minutes and the calendar; asks why the positions were letters of agreement (1:13:34) and whether the default budget already funds them (1:18:28); argues against the motion (1:22:18); votes No.
Frank Sprague	Member	Moves the agenda (0:02:10); says universal pre-K is new to him (0:26:03); seconds the $600,000 motion "for discussions sake" (1:10:33) and asks about next year's budget (1:11:06); votes Yes.
Whitney Skillen	Member	Moves the 2/1 minutes (minutes) and seconds the agenda (minutes; the chair's words on tape are "a second by Brittany"); makes the $600,000 motion (1:10:13) and explains it (1:13:03, 1:38:26); votes Yes; moves adjournment (1:48:43). Rendered Skilling and Gillan by the transcript.
Steven Horsky	Member	Moves the calendar (0:07:07); questions the pre-K enrollment table (0:24:33) and whether coaching is voluntary (0:48:12); argues to let the voters decide (1:20:35); votes No.
Bonnie Miles	Member	Asks about required coaching (0:44:44), free versus reduced lunch counts (0:58:54), Head Start (1:00:17) and the six-period day (1:01:11); votes Yes (1:40:54); seconds adjournment (minutes). Identified in the dialogue file by elimination, corroborated by the superintendent's "To Bonnie's point" (0:46:54).
Hannah Petrin	Student representative	School-by-school report (0:03:13).
Michael C. Tempesta	Superintendent, SAU 6	Presents the calendar (0:05:01) and the reconfiguration case (0:12:45); answers on ESSER and Title funding for pre-K (0:26:43), letters of agreement (1:14:37) and class sizes (0:52:19); asks members to come in and sign the warrant article, MS-26 and default budget (1:48:06).
Mike Koski	Assistant Superintendent	State testing data (0:17:57); Hattie effect sizes (0:33:50). The minutes also credit him with thanking Zach Hurst; the dialogue file places that sentence in the superintendent's cluster and marks it uncertain.
Richard Seaman	Assistant Superintendent for Finance and Operations	Explains the cost of having no teachers' contract (1:19:24); reads the default-budget definition aloud (1:34:24); calls the roll (1:40:43).
Ben Nester	Director of Special Education	History of the behavior-specialist positions (1:16:06).
Kristina Sanford	Early Childhood Director (minutes)	Universal pre-K model (0:20:20); her own 2017 to 2019 state coaching results (0:38:37); Head Start (1:00:41); pre-K slot arithmetic (1:36:06). The dialogue file and the superintendent call her Christina; the minutes and the superintendent's report spell her name Kristina.
Stephanie Hurst	Literacy Specialist (minutes)	Presents the TeachUNITED coaching grant (0:31:26) and answers on voluntary coaching (0:48:56). The dialogue file has no surname; the minutes supply it.
Melissa Lewis	Principal, Disnard Elementary	Disnard room capacity (0:27:48); peer coaching (0:50:42); winter enrichment (1:45:11).
Christine Baker	Principal, Bluff Elementary	Bluff fifth-grade space (0:28:45).
Candace Crawford	Citizens' comments, Ward 2	Asks whether the calendar is coordinated with Newport (0:08:10); comment on the motion (1:24:29). A member of the public on this date (appointed to the board in July 2023).
Gary Merchant	Citizens' comments, Ward 2; state representative	Supports closing the default gap (1:29:03); asks where absentee ballots come from (1:43:11).
Michelle Beaton	Citizens' comments, Ward 2	Process and pre-K capacity questions (1:31:45); credited for winter enrichment (1:47:03). Rendered Michelle, be in Ward two by the transcript.
Ann Fine	Citizens' comments, Ward 2	Supports the motion (1:37:41). Named in the minutes; the dialogue file labels the row Unidentified (self-identification transcribed as And fine. Ward two.).
Chelsea Weatherford	Recording secretary	Submitted the minutes.
Zach Hurst	CanAm (business donor)	Thanked for funding the elementary winter enrichment program (1:44:52); did not speak.

Agenda

Items and wording from the posted agenda (created on Drive February 14, 2023, 00:13 UTC); dispositions from the recording and the minutes.
Taken up	Item	Agenda text / disposition
6:30 p.m.	I. Call to order, pledge	Recording opens mid-pledge at 0:00:03.
0:01:11	II. General business	Attendance answers are audible but the names called are not (0:01:34 to 0:01:54). Agenda approved by voice vote: Sprague moved; the minutes record Skillen as seconder, where the chair is transcribed as "a second by Brittany for the discussion" (0:02:14). February 1, 2023 minutes approved by voice vote, Skillen moving and Whitney seconding (minutes). Citizens' comments called at 0:02:38; no one came forward and the chair closed them at 0:03:03. Student report 0:03:13.
0:04:41	III.1 2023-2024 School Year Calendar Review and Approval	Agenda: "2023-2024 School Year Calendar Review and Approval". Horsky moved, Whitney seconded (0:07:07 to 0:07:15); Candace Crawford asked about coordination with Newport before the vote (0:08:10); carried by voice vote (0:09:59). The minutes place the vote before Crawford's question; the recording has it after.
0:09:59	III.2 Reconsideration of Operating/ Default Budgets	Agenda: "Reconsideration of Operating/ Default Budgets". Administration presentation 0:11:03 to 1:08:40. Skillen moved to add $600,000 to the default budget, Sprague seconded (1:10:13, 1:10:33). Public comment on the motion 1:23:54 to 1:38:16. Voice vote unclear; roll call at 1:40:36: Whitney No, Horsky No, Miles Yes, Sprague Yes, Skillen Yes, Petrin Yes; "The motion passes 4 to 2." (1:41:15). The minutes record the same names and tally.
1:41:25	IV. Other business / future items / dates	Agenda: candidates' forum February 28, 2023 at the SRVRTC Goodrich Community Room; SRVRTC Visioning Committee report March 1, 2023. The chair lists the March candidates (1:42:22); winter-enrichment thanks (1:44:44); the superintendent asks for signatures on the warrant article, MS-26 and default budget (1:48:06).
1:48:43	VI. Adjournment	Skillen moved, Miles seconded (minutes); voice vote.

Discussion timeline

Times are taken from the dialogue transcript (Dialogue/14909 SchoolBoard021523.mp4.CSV) and link into the recording.

Time	Topic	What was said	Flags
0:03:13	Student representative report	Winter enrichment, a Disnard play, a Maple concert on the 22nd, an eighth-grade trip meeting on the 23rd, the senior play, the Region 10 meeting at the tech center.
0:05:01	2023-24 calendar	The superintendent says the calendar was vetted by the union, adds teacher workshop days, and is aligned with Newport except on voting days; January's primary date is unknown, so the third Tuesday is "a placeholder" (0:06:45). He tells Crawford the district now has 178 student days and "There are no conflict." (0:09:15).
0:10:33	Why the default budget is back	The chair: the deliberative session "added $1 million back into the budget, which now creates about $2 million gap between the proposed budget and the default budget", and the default "can, with this new information, with this change can be changed" by the board.	OBSERVATION
0:11:03	Reconfiguration case	The superintendent: "there's no coercion" of the administrators presenting; elementary overcrowding, Title services delivered "in front of other kids in the library" (0:13:16); "the average in all the elementaries for ten years is 16 students" (0:14:18); pre-K embedded in each elementary; a coaching model; fifth grade to the middle school; a tech-center course as a graduation requirement (0:16:58).
0:17:57	State testing data	Koski: ten years of reading, math and science scores against the state; "we just haven't moved out of the bottom 25%" except for a few schools and years. The superintendent's report lists those exceptions and gives enrollment as down 299 students since 2012.
0:20:20	Universal pre-K	Sanford: "free public preschool for all is, I think the dream"; children often arrive "completely non-verbal" (0:22:06). On Horsky's question, "You are looking at 20 total, 14 of that 20 already having an IEP in place" plus a waiting list (0:24:55).
0:26:03	Space and funding for pre-K	Sprague: "So, so this is the first I've heard of universal pre-K." The superintendent names the funding as "We have s s are [ESSER] funds okay as well" and some Title funds, three rooms budgeted (0:26:43), and says the state called the plan acceptable (0:27:05). Lewis: Disnard would free three fifth-grade rooms and take two preschool rooms (0:27:48); Baker: Bluff needs a second fifth-grade room next year (0:28:45).
0:31:26	TeachUNITED coaching grant	Hurst: "Out of 15 schools in the entire state, six of ours were chosen to be a part of this teach United cohort." Two-year cohort training teacher leaders as coaches; "So it's not a quick fix." (0:42:56). Skillen asks how it relates to the restructuring; Hurst says it "could happen with or without that" (0:43:29).
0:33:50	Teacher skill against class size	Koski on John Hattie's effect sizes (collective teacher skill 1.57, reduce class size 0.21 in the report's table): "And one of those has been to reduce class sizes." (0:34:40).
0:38:37	Coaching results	Sanford presents her own state-coaching scores, 60% of key practices in October 2017 rising to 97% by spring 2019: "I put myself on blast here just so you guys could see what coaching looks like". The report reproduces her assessment sheets; the superintendent says she volunteered (0:37:58).
0:44:44	Is coaching required?	Miles asks whether a struggling teacher would be required to take part; Horsky: "the one concern I have in the in the presentation is that it's not required by teachers" (0:48:12). Hurst: a coach "can be used in a lot of different ways, but it's almost never forced upon teachers" (0:49:24).
0:52:19	Staffing and class-size history	Seven-year enrollment, free-and-reduced and staffing tables by school. For Stevens: "the average class size all the way across, okay. For those seven years is 147" (0:56:32); the report's figure is 14.7.
0:58:54	Free versus reduced; Head Start	Miles asks how many students are free rather than reduced; the superintendent: "And it's also kind of confidential." (0:59:11). On Head Start, Sanford: "They currently have two classrooms of 18 that are full." (1:00:41).
1:04:16	Quality of pre-K	Whitney cites literature that high-quality early education cuts disruptive behaviors "by 8 to 12%" and raises graduation "roughly 16%", and asks "how are we going to make sure that what we are offering is high quality?" (1:04:43).
1:08:48	The decision framed	The chair: "What the only thing we're here to decide tonight is the default budget." and "The only way we can do that would be to restore positions that have been deemed to be cut or moved." (1:09:13).	OBSERVATION
1:10:13	$600,000 motion	Skillen: "I'm making a motion to restore $600,000 to the default budget", money that "would be used to fund the lows [LOAs] that were going to be funded by Esser" and the Title-funded positions. Sprague seconds "for discussions sake" (1:10:33).	OBSERVATION
1:11:06	Counsel's advice referred to	Sprague: "we were talking with, with with our attorney and we were concerned with, I'm assuming that's a public wasn't a non wasn't a non public." Whitney later cites "what I understood from Matt Upton" (1:19:02) and Skillen "explanation from our district's attorney" (1:38:26).	OBSERVATION
1:12:13	When the grants end	The chair: "Esther [ESSER] is going to write out [run out] in two years". The superintendent: "it's not mandatory that they come back into the budget" (1:12:29). Skillen: "it doesn't put us at risk for a structural deficit where we need positions that we don't have funding for" (1:13:03).
1:13:34	Letters of agreement	Whitney: "one of the benefits of being low is that they are not contracted employees". The superintendent: the positions are "In many cases behavioral interventionists" (1:14:37), and "we have, I believe 20 or 30 low folks that don't necessarily fit into a bargaining unit" (1:15:02). Nester: around 2018 to 2019 "we added roughly ten behavior specialists" (1:16:06).
1:18:28	Does the default already fund them?	Whitney: "every position that we're talking about refunding would already be funded by the default budget". Seaman: under the default, teachers "will make exactly what they're making this year and they will not receive a step increase", "a near catastrophic issue" (1:19:24).	OBSERVATION
1:20:35	Arguments against	Horsky: "adding $1 million on one side still doesn't change the fact that the teachers contract on the other side is not there with the default budget"; "Let's let the voters decide." (1:21:36). Whitney: "it's disingenuous to say that we're going to find [fund] positions and then later on decide kind of arbitrarily or not arbitrarily, but just decide not to fund those positions to artificially inflate the default budget" (1:22:18); "at deliberative session 47, people chose to put $1 million back in the budget" (1:22:44). The deliberative-session minutes record the amendment vote as 41 to 27.	OBSERVATION
1:23:54	Public comment on the motion	Crawford: voters believed the reorganization was tied to the budget and "they were not happy with the reorganization"; "There's there's no community support for it yet." (1:25:51). Merchant: without closing the gap "it puts it a greater risk" (1:29:24). Beaton on January 17: "Quick five minute recess by the board. Million dollars is cut. No explanation." (1:31:49).	POSITIVE
1:34:24	The statute read aloud	Seaman reads the definition (transcribed as RSA 4030), ending at "and by salaries and benefits of positions that have been eliminated in the proposed budget for purpose", then: "this was updated in 2018" (1:35:17) and "it's up to the board's interpretation of these words" (1:35:43).	OBSERVATION
1:36:06	Pre-K capacity	Sanford: twelve children per classroom, two rooms in two half-day sessions per school, 48 slots per school, 144 in all; "So that's not, all four year olds." (1:36:32).
1:37:41	Ann Fine	"It it seems like a backdoor effort to do the million dollar cut. I support the motion to add the $600,000 to the default budget."
1:38:26	Why $600,000 and not $1,000,000	Skillen: counsel advised that "the school board has the power to make a motion like this to restore funding for the positions that were redefined", and "only those low positions and positions that were moved to the title grant are under the jurisdiction of the school board at this time" (1:38:52).	OBSERVATION OBSERVATION
1:39:11	Motion restated	The chair: adding $600,000 "would bring the net to be raised by taxes to $15,845,186 in the total appropriations for the default budget would be $36,942,948". Seaman: Correct. (1:39:39).
1:39:42	Vote	The voice vote is unclear (Skillen: I think it was 4 to 2, 1:40:12); the chair: "We need a revolt [re-vote]." (1:40:16) and "Richard, can you do a roll call? Vote for us. Pretend I'm Ben." (1:40:36). Roll call 4 to 2 (1:41:15).	POSITIVE
1:41:25	Forum and candidates	Candidates' forum February 28, 6:00 to 7:30, facilitated by New Hampshire Listens. The chair names the three-year candidates "Frank Sprague, Nicholas Stone, and Arlene Hopkins [Hawkins]" and, for the one-year seat, Jennifer Gallagher and himself (1:42:22). Absentee ballots come from the city clerk (1:43:24).
1:44:44	Winter enrichment	Thanks to "Zach Hurst from Kent, M [CanAm]" for funding; Lewis: about 120 children at the community center, "Almost 500 children into the community" overall (1:46:42); Beaton credits the principals.
1:48:06	Signatures	The superintendent: "Tomorrow I'll be able to find to finalize the Warren article [warrant article], the miss 26 [MS-26] and the default budget. I'm going to need your signatures." Members are asked to sign at the SAU office after 1:00.	OBSERVATION

Items flagged for review

These flags are a reviewer's aid, not findings of violation and not legal advice. Each one cites the rule it rests on as that rule read on February 15, 2023; check the recording and the primary source before relying on any of them. Severity: HIGH, a likely breach of a binding rule or a missed statutory deadline; MEDIUM, a probable process gap or control weakness; OBSERVATION, notable with no confirmed rule; POSITIVE, practice beyond the legal minimum. This page carries no HIGH or MEDIUM flag.

OBSERVATION The default budget was raised $600,000 after the deliberative session, and the public record does not show the line items or the amended form

RSA 40:13, XI(b) allows the governing body to adjust the default budget "acting on relevant new information at any time before the ballots are printed, provided the governing body ... completes an amended default budget form" (statute). The board's action fits that window: the motion passed on a recorded roll call (1:41:15) and the superintendent was finalizing the default budget for signatures the next day (1:48:06). The stated basis was that the money funds letter-of-agreement positions moved to ESSER and Title funding (1:10:13), which Skillen described as "positions that were redefined" (1:38:26); IX(b) says eliminated positions "shall not include ... positions redefined in the proposed operating budget, as determined by the governing body" (statute), which supports her reading. What the record lacks: the motion was a round $600,000, no member or administrator named the positions or account codes it covers, and the amended default budget form XI(a)(2) requires (changes "by account code, and the reasons for each change") is not in this meeting's packet. Whitney's objection, that restoring positions only to decide later not to fund them would "artificially inflate the default budget" (1:22:18), is the question the form would answer. The resulting figures, $36,942,948 in default appropriations and $15,845,186 to be raised by taxes, are the chair's on tape (1:39:11).

Sources: RSA 40:13, IX(b) and XI(a)-(b) (2022 codification; source note ends 2019, 192:2, unchanged since); minutes, item III.2

OBSERVATION The default-budget definition read to the board stopped before the clause that decided the motion

Asked to explain the calculation, the business administrator chose to read the statute "as opposed to my interpretation of it" (1:27:48). His reading ends at "positions that have been eliminated in the proposed budget" (1:34:24) and continues with a description of one-time expenditures; it does not include the next sentence's exclusion, "eliminated positions shall not include vacant positions under recruitment or positions redefined in the proposed operating budget, as determined by the governing body", and nothing on the recording mentions XI(b)'s adjustment power. Both bear directly on the motion before the board: the exclusion is the basis Skillen gave, and XI(b) is the authority for acting at all. He closed with "it's up to the board's interpretation of these words" (1:35:43). His remark that the law "was updated in 2018" (1:35:17) is consistent with the source note (2018, 241:1, 2 and 313:1, 2). The project has recorded the same truncation in Claremont's printed default-budget worksheets.

Sources: RSA 40:13, IX(b) and XI(b) (2022 codification)

OBSERVATION The legal advice the motion rested on was given off the record, and a member was unsure whether that session was public

Three members relied on counsel's advice: Sprague recalled "talking with ... our attorney" at an earlier meeting and added "I'm assuming that's a public wasn't a non wasn't a non public" (1:11:06); Whitney cited "what I understood from Matt Upton" (1:19:02); Skillen sized her motion at $600,000 rather than $1,000,000 on "explanation from our district's attorney" (1:38:26). Consultation with legal counsel is excluded from the definition of a meeting by RSA 91-A:2, I(b) (statute), so receiving the advice privately is lawful. The recording does not say when or in what setting it was given, and the February 15 minutes do not mention it. A reader cannot tell from the record what counsel advised beyond these members' summaries.

Sources: RSA 91-A:2, I(b) (2022 codification; source note ends 2018, 244:1)

POSITIVE A roll call when the voice vote was unclear, and minutes posted within the deadline with every mover and seconder

When the voice vote on the $600,000 motion could not be read, the chair called a re-vote by roll call and the business administrator called each member by name (1:40:36 to 1:41:15). The draft minutes record that roll by name, name the mover and seconder of every motion as RSA 91-A:2, II has required since January 1, 2019, and reached the public packet folder on Sunday, February 19, 2023 (Drive file creation time), within five business days of the meeting (Monday, February 20 was Washington's Birthday, a state holiday). Two small discrepancies: the minutes record the calendar vote before Crawford's question, where the recording has it after (0:08:10, 0:09:59), and they name Skillen as the agenda seconder, where the transcript has the chair say "a second by Brittany for the discussion" (0:02:14), a known transcription garble for an unheard name.

Sources: RSA 91-A:2, II (minutes; mover and seconder; five business days); draft minutes, created February 19, 2023

POSITIVE The public was heard on both action items before the board voted

RSA 189:74, I (in force from September 6, 2022) requires school boards to give the public an opportunity to comment for no less than 30 minutes at a meeting. The agenda's citizens' comment slot drew no one and was closed within a minute (0:02:38, 0:03:03); on its own that slot would not show a 30-minute opportunity. The chair then took public questions on the calendar before its vote (0:07:51) and opened comment on the $600,000 motion while it was pending (1:23:54), hearing four residents and a statute reading over about fourteen minutes before closing (1:38:16). Taking comment on a live motion, before the vote, goes beyond a fixed comment slot.

Sources: RSA 189:74, I (2022 codification; source 2022, 333:1, eff. Sept. 6, 2022)

Appendix: source files

Official and public sources

Cablecast: Claremont School Board 2/15/23 (Claremont Community Television (CCTV) / Claremont Community Media Center (CCMC); title as MAP.md records it)
Drive packet folder 6.CSB 2.15.23 (created February 9, 2023), 6 documents:
- 2.15.23 CSB Agenda (created February 14, 2023)
- CSB Public Notice Ad 2.15.23.pdf (created February 9, 2023)
- Claremont School Board Superintendent and AT Team Report 2.15.23 (the slide deck presented under item III.2)
- TeachUNITED Presentation 2.16.23 (1).pdf
- draft 2.1.23 CSB Meeting Minutes (approved tonight)
- draft 2.15.23 CSB meeting minutes .docx.pdf (this meeting's minutes, created February 19, 2023)
Minutes: 3. 2.15.23 CSB meeting minutes (Meeting Minutes share); a further draft copy, draft 2.15.23 CSB meeting minutes, is in the March 1, 2023 packet. No amended default budget form was found in this packet.
Related page: Claremont School Board, March 1, 2023

Project files

Working files this page was built from. The dialogue file is linked; the others are not published with the page.

Dialogue/14909 SchoolBoard021523.mp4.CSV (540 attributed rows; the basis of this page)
Input/Videos/14909 SchoolBoard021523.mp4 (local copy of the recording)
Input/Transcripts/14909 SchoolBoard021523.mp4.json (diarized transcript)
Input/SupportingDocuments/MAP.md, section 187 (video-to-document map)

Laws and rules cited on this page

State, as codified for the meeting date: RSA 40:13, IX(b) and XI(a)-(b); RSA 91-A:2, I(b) and II; RSA 189:74; RSA 288:1 (state holidays, for the business-day count)